Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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[168] army made an advance which brought the Eighteenth Regiment to a position at Hall's Hill. On the 10th of March the regiment left Hall's Hill to take part in the siege of Yorktown and the movement upon Richmond. They had no sooner arrived in front of the fortifications than they were actively engaged as skirmishers and supports of the batteries. From this time forward until the 5th of May, when the works were occupied by the national troops, the regiment was almost daily under the fire of the enemy. Upon the retreat of the Rebels up the Peninsula, the Army of the Potomac followed in pursuit,— one portion, and the larger, marching by land,—and the other portion, which included the Eighteenth Massachusetts, and as under General Franklin, being carried by water in transports to West Point. From White House the united army marched to the Chickahominy. The plan of the campaign contemplated a junction of the Army of the Potomac with the force under McDowell, who was to come down from Fredericksburg. In pursuance of this plan, the corps under General Porter, to which Lieutenant Russell and his regiment belonged, having been thrown out, for the purpose of meeting McDowell, to a position on the extreme right, came into collision with a large Rebel force at Hanover Court-House, and there fought on the 27th of May a victorious battle. It so happened, however, that the Eighteenth Regiment was unable to participate in the honors of that victory, having had eight companies on duty for twenty-four continuous hours, and being therefore permitted a few hours of rest. After this necessary delay, the regiment followed on with all despatch, stirred by the sound of the distant cannonade; but it did not reach the field until after the battle was won.

The movement of the Rebel forces under Jackson up the Shenandoah Valley now frustrated the junction of Porter and McDowell which had been planned, by drawing off McDowell to oppose the advance of Jackson and protect the capital. The right wing of the Army of the Potomac was then withdrawn from its remote position at Hanover Court-House. The Eighteenth returned to Gaines's Mills and remained there till